Dr. Faquir Muhammad Hunzai is a famous religious scholar, writer, translater, researcher, and man of letters of the Northern Areas of Pakistan. He was borne in Shinaki the lower part of Hunza. After his early education in his native village he went to the Karachi University , where he did three M.As in Philosophy, Arabic and Persian languages and literatures. He received a PhD degree in Islamic Studies from the McGill University, Montreal, Canada. For a short period he served as a lecturer in Arabic and Persian at GovernmentDegree College, Gilgit, Pakistan. At present he is serving as a Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, in London, United Kingdom. He has translated, al-Risalah al-Durriyyah , of the famous Fatimid thinker, Hamid al-Din Kirmani for the first time into the English language. According to The Institute of Ismaili Studies, “His publications include The Shimmering Light -An Anthology of Ismaili Poetry (London, 1996), a new edition and English translation of the ‘Gushayish wa Rahdyish’ printed as Nasir Khusraw: Knowledge and Liberation (London, 1998), The Holy Ahl al-Bayt in the Prophetic Traditions (Karachi, forthcoming), as well as contributions to the Encyclopaedia Iranica and other publications. He has also translated from Urdu and Burushaski into English, more than 50 works, including The Book of Healing and A Thousand Wisdoms of ‘Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai whose main focus is esoteric Ismailism. Presently he is working on translations of Wajh-i Din and the Diwan of Nasir Khusraw.”

External links

• Majalis-ul Muayyadiya
• Pakistan's Northern Areas dilemma (BBC)
• Pakistan's Northern Areas
• Northern Pakistan's Karakoram & Hindukush Mountains
• The Mountain Areas Conservancy Project
• Gilgit Map
• Not ‘Mir of Hunza’